Maug Cleaning Service

"Client, [member name removed], had been a customer since 9/15/2011 and not once had communicated to me that we provided services that she did not want or that there were too many employees providing the services. This customer does not have an average size home; it is over 3,500 square feet and I feel we provided the correct number of employees and hours to properly do the job. She has always had three employees working and never asked that it be changed. Customer did reduce her services from bi-weekly to monthly but did not mention to me that it was because we were “so expensive”. The client is in full control at all times as to the extent of services they wish to receive and how often they wish to receive them. We charge by the hour and the customer may reduce or increase their hours at any time. They may also request a price quote at any time. I spoke with the clients’ husband to apologize for the billing error. I was on vacation and the new office assistant (and also a new position for us) that prepared the invoices for that period did so as per our compan y policy. It is company policy to bill clients when employees show up on regularly scheduled cleaning days and are locked out and all of our customers have been informed of this policy. This policy was put into place to protect our employees because we do have clients that habitually forget to call to notify us that they will not be home. Employees rely on their scheduled cleaning hours; therefore we greatly stress that our clients call to cancel or reschedule their services. I certainly understand that these types of things happen and we typically only bill clients for “locked out” time when they make a practice of not rescheduling. Had I been notified before invoicing this client for the “locked out” time, I would not have billed her as this was her first “locked out” occurrence. I fully believe that this issue has been rectified by communicating to all office staff that I must be informed before any client is billed for “locked out” time. It was snowing on the day of this customers scheduled cleaning. It is our policy to only cancel/reschedule if school is closed due to inclement weather and our clients were informed of this policy. Even though this is our policy, our clients also know that I will always call to verify that it is alright with them that we will not be coming due to the weather. I make this call because I need to verify that they were not expecting company or having a party and need to keep their appointment. If they don’t need cleaning services for that day, then I will work with them to reschedule. I sent a formal apology letter to Janet and also included a complimentary carpet or dryer duct cleaning gift for her distress over this billing error issue. It is unfortunate that this lack of communication has caused us to lose a valued customer."